Are you a user of Instagram? In preparation for the upcoming 2014 Business Tech Trends webcast on Thursday, Aug. 21st, my team at IBM has put together some really neat and useful Instagram videos that highlight some of the topics we will discuss during the webcast. Please check them out!

You don’t have to have an Instagram account to view the videos. But, if you do use Instagram, feel free to like and comment on them!

Register now and add the August 21st webcast to your calendar. Don’t miss this great opportunity to hear about the secrets of successful companies! Join the thousands of individuals, enterprises (large and small!), academicians, and startups for our webcast!

I know you’ll learn and benefit from our conversation on the key characteristics of pacestting companies. It will be an hour well spent!

Organizations that are the most inclusive of women in top management achieve 35% higher return on equity (ROE) and 34% better total return to shareholders versus their peers – and research shows gender diversity to be particularly valuable where innovation is key, according to research conducted by Illuminate Ventures.

Despite women making up more than 50% of the population, women are conspicuously absent in IT. Only 3% of tech companies were founded by women, and, of venture-backed startups, only 1.3% have a female founder and only 6.5% have a woman CEO. Women make up half of all consumers, but by not having their voice included in the development of today’s new technology, the world is missing out on a wave of new technology and products that would appeal to both genders.

Women in IT has always been low, but today it is even lower than 30 years ago. Today, women represent 12% of all computer science graduates. In 1984, they represented 37% of all computer science graduates.

Much of this has to do with exposure to computer science before college and during college. According to Code.org, nine out of ten schools don’t even offer computer science classes, and in 28 out of 50 states, computer science doesn’t count towards a math or science credit.

This is why I love the focus on more women in Computer Science! Join our movement to get more women in Tech!

In Japan, our team hosted a great event for a “Girls Night Out” around the cloud!

If you are interested in hosting a “Bluemix Girls Night Out” in your region, please let me know!